Cherry Hills

My moms extended family had a reunion at Cherry Hills last Saturday. My sister came from Manila (Utah) so Shaun and I decided to go up too. We have never taken Cecilia to a water park but she loves to swim so I thought it would be a lot of fun. I bought a life jacket for her and we packed a lunch and went up after her nap. It was so much fun. It was super crowded! We went in the lazy river and she had a great time and then I found this little slide just perfect for her. It goes into this little kiddy pool that is only about a foot deep and she loved it. The first couple of times down the slide I went with her. Then I saw a little boy about her size go down by himself and I thought she could do it. Especially since she had her life jacket on that kept her up right so she wouldn't fall over. I took her to the top and Shaun stayed down to catch her and she loved it! We did it several times because she enjoyed it so much and it was something she could do on her own. Shaun caught this video of one of the trips.



Of course it was fun to see family too and Cecilia enjoyed her cousins as always. Next time we'll have to go on a weekday though!

Irony

There are times in your life when you do something you swore you would never do. And sometimes you are so happy about it. Today was one of those times. While we were in Oregon Cecilia decided she was done eating baby food. We would be fine with that, if she would only eat meat that isn't in baby food. I worry about her protein intake because she doesn't drink milk very well either. So I've been trying to get her to eat protein in other ways. Of course I give her what we eat, but she won't eat it, unless it is in a soup and is really distracted and I feed it to her, and not always even then. She also won't eat potatoes or pasta either so it is really hard to find different things to feed her for three meals plus snacks everyday. Well it came to a head the other day when I tried a million things for dinner and she didn't want any of them. I finally put her to bed, probably hungry. The next morning Shaun didn't have any better luck. He finally turned to me and said, "just go to the store and get some chicken nuggets." We swore we wouldn't feed our children chicken nuggets. Oh the preservatives and junk in those things. They can't be good for you, except they do have protein. Shaun has always said "if you don't feed your children chicken nuggets (and french fries) then they won't get addicted to them and request them for every meal." So it is a testament to how frustrated we are that he would say go buy them and I would run out and get tater tots, dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets, and fish sticks. That day for lunch I tried the thing I thought her most likely to eat, tater tots. Well she scarfed them down. I was really excited. Fried potatoes, yippee! So for dinner I tried the chicken nuggets. She took two bits, which I was pretty happy with because that means she will probably do more next time. I waited a few days to get the fried food out of her system before trying again. Today it was the fish sticks and she ate about 1 and a half sticks. I never thought I would be so excited to see my daughter eat fish sticks. Oh the lengths we go to feed our kids, and the things we will do. If you told either Shaun or I five years ago we would celebrate this we would have refused to believe you and given you a lecture on how bad that food is for you. In my defense, I read this nutrition book which talks about making connections between the food your kids will eat and the foods you ultimately want them to eat. For example you give them tater tots, then roasted potatoes that are similar enough that they are willing to try them, then once they eat them well you move on to baked potatoes and then mashed. My goal is to make a connection between fish sticks and real fish like a nice baked salmon. And dino bites towards other types of chicken Wish us good luck, and don't tease us too much if we are still feeding her fish sticks and dino bites in a year from now. Someday she will eat good like us, hopefully!

Cecilia Update

I haven't written about Cecilia for a while and it is time for an update. First I should mention that she has been walking since we caught the video of her about a month ago. She seems a little happier now because she just walks all over the house. Back and forth, back and forth. She loves a little interaction as she walks by you and it keeps her going for longer than any toy has. It has been great! I will have to get a video to show you. She still loves to see what you are doing and still wants lots of attention. But I can do something for about 10 minutes now while she runs around. She still prefers a hand on uneven surfaces like grass and when strangers are around. But it has been so great for her to walk on her own.

She is signing like crazy right now. It has been so fun to teach her and has helped with communication. We recently went to the park and she was able to tell me "all done" when she was finished with the swings and playing in the wood chips. It was great! No waiting until she is fussy to figure out she is done. She just signed it and we stopped and moved on. The signs she knows are, "more", "all done", "baby", "cracker", "milk", "juice", "dog" (her favorite), "bird", "fish" (which was fun at the aquarium we went to the other day), "apple", "grapes", "blueberries" (her favorite food), "thank you", "cereal", "fan", and I'm sure there are more but that is about all I can think of. We recently got her more signing videos because she loved the one we had so much. From those she has learned "shoes", "hurt", and "hat." Not that we let her watch much TV, but there are times when you just need to get something done. I can't wait until she can really talk though and tell me all that is on her mind. She jabbers so much, I just know she wants to tell me more than she can sign. She does say a few words too "dada" is her favorite, "mama" is no longer her favorite person so I have to push her to say it, she says "cheese" (really well I might add), "shoes","book", "ball", "bubbles", "balloon", and "stuck" which is really cute. I'm sure there are others but I've reached my thinking capacity and can't remember. The point is, she signs and talks and is picking it all up really fast.

Summer Time

What would summer be without Shaun and I staying up until all hours of the night bottling, canning and making jam? Well in some ways it would be nice, but then it wouldn't be a Ritchie summer. Plus we enjoy the "fruits of our labor" (ha ha) all year. We could have better planning and not start things at 10 pm. But maybe next year (we can all hope).

This week it has been all about apricots. Last weekend Shaun saw a post on facebook from a woman in our ward saying they had tons of apricots on their tree and first come first serve. Well you know how we are about free fruit, recall our peaches adventures from last year. So Shaun was out the door in about 5 minutes hoping to beat everyone else there. He had his fruit picker in hand, ready to get the ones no one else can reach. He was so excited about fruit tree season (I'm sure there is a better term, but you get the idea) this year that he bought this contraption on amazon that extends at least 10 feet so no fruit goes to waste. He couldn't wait to try it out. And apparently it works because he came home with a bunch of fruit. Then Monday the family with the apricot tree sent an email to the ward broadcasting their apricots. Shaun was devastated and thought they would be all gone by the time he could get back. We have seen/talked to three people who went picking, and heard about more. One of which also stayed up until 1 am making jam. But as a testament to this tree Shaun went back again and got more than the first time. Yeah for the fruit picker! He also went to a tree on a vacant lot and picked, but they hadn't been watered and were really small. I don't know how much fruit he picked, but over the course of two late nights we made 20 small containers of freezer jam, 5 quarts, and about 10 pints of bottled apricots. What do you do with bottled apricots you say? Make apricot nectar of course! You'll have to ask Shaun's grandma about it. All I know is you make it from bottled apricots and Shaun loves it.

Oh and Shaun also made some grape jelly too, just because we were already in the middle of it and of course we weren't busy enough.

What are we going to do with all of this jam?! Anyone want some?

Flaming Gorge

This week we went to Flaming Gorge with a lot of my family. It was so fun to see everyone. I haven't seen my nephews that live in Washington for a long time. We all got together in Manila to go boating. Growing up 15 minutes from the lake made us boating people. It was fun for me to watch the next generation learn to water ski and knee-board and catch some air on the tube. The lake is as chilly as ever but you just suck it up and jump in. Shaun loved driving my dads boat and told me more than once that he wants one. I love it too so someday... Cecilia had the best time playing with her cousins, especially Chandra. She just loved her! You should have seen her lounging on her and following her around. I'm sure Chandra was happy when we left the way she mauled her!





We also took Cecilia on her first boat ride. She was a little timid at first, but then she warmed up and I was holding on to her life jacket for dear life as she leans out the front of the boat going 20 mph.



We stopped off in Green River (where I grew up) on the way so I could reminisce. It was so fun to drive around as a grown up and remember old times and look at the town from a different perspective. I don't know when we will go back so I'm really glad we took the time. I also wanted to stop by my old High School. I was in the last graduating class from it. They built a new high school and turned it into a middle school. It was interesting to see the changes and think back to that time of my life. Here I am by my old locker.


I remember standing in the main hall by the office on graduation day thinking I would never go to that school again. I showed Shaun the classroom where I decided to be a scientist. Here Cecilia are knocking on the door because it was locked.


It was this same classroom where I took anatomy and decided I didn't have the stomach to be a doctor :) But we did a course on genetics and I was sold. It is interesting how trivial High School is, yet at the same time you can make decisions that will shape your whole life. I know more than one girl who got pregnant and changed their life forever. My decision to go into genetics changed my life, I know I'm no great scientist that will invent the cure for cancer and change the world, but that decision has effected me and the way I think for the rest of my life. It will effect my children in ways unknown, and who knows who else. So I had a great time driving around town and looking at the growth along with the things that haven't changed since I was a kid. Just like me.

catch up

I know it has been a long time since I've posted. I have two excuses. The first is our internet has had some real problems lately and it drives me crazy when I'm in the middle of something and it crashes. So I would rather not get on at all. Work has suffered too :) The other reason is audio books. A few weeks ago I was at the library and found the audio books for a trilogy called His Dark Materials. I saw the film for the first book a few years ago and was excited to finish the series with audio books. So I ran home and put them on my ipod. They were really fun to listen to and each day I found myself looking for things to do that didn't require brain power so I could listen to them while Cecilia slept. Let's just say my house and yard benefited from my addiction as cleaning is a good thing to do with your hands while your mind is elsewhere. But as I said work and blogging suffered. Well they are finished now.

So what have we been up to lately? Well Shaun mentioned the park where he and Cecilia had so much fun kicking a ball. We also were able to see family from out of town of the holiday weekend. My brother and his family came for a visit and we were able to see them for a bit. Cecilia had so much fun playing with her cousins and their dog. She quickly learned the sign for dog and does it every time I say the word. She is learning so quickly right now! She knows the sign for baby too. It is in the signing video we have and I didn't even know she knew it until I was pointing out things to her in a book and pointed to a baby and she stops and does the sign. I was shocked and amazed. She is so smart! We also caught this video yesterday and were so proud of her. It came about because we left her standing up holding on to the gate above our stairs and walked into the front room. A few minutes later she came walking into the room. We were so surprised that she just decided to let go and walk to us without any prompt. So we decided to get out the camera and caught this. I think we can officially say she can walk because she will actually let go of things on her own. She still can't stand up without props, but will figure it out soon enough.



My mom said "it is amazing that she picked up the sippy cup and kept walking, but it was really amazing she picked up a sippy cup!" knowing how difficult it can sometimes be to get her to take a drink. Maybe that will change?

Upcoming trips include a boating trip with my family next week, Great-grandparent wedding anniversary next weekend, and then a trip to Oregon. We are really excited about this trip. We will get to visit more family which we don't see often and we will be able to go pick blueberries. I think Cecilia will have so much fun doing this!!! I can't wait to see what she does. My little blueberry fiend! Today we are going to go see grandparents Hadley and extended family who are camping. No camping for us as we have a wedding reception tonight, but it will be fun to visit anyway. So nice they are camping close. Better go...

Sugarhouse Park festivities

Since we're celebrating Independence Day on July 3rd, 4th and 5th this year, we decided to take advantage of the cooler weather and get outside as much as possible over the weekend. The fireworks were back on in Sugarhouse Park after almost not happening this year due to budget cuts. Fortunately for the community, many hours of fund raising made it happen. We went to the park in the afternoon to enjoy the people and the preparations. Unfortunately, we weren't actually able to see the fireworks because we had to put the little one down early. But we could see some of them through the trees from our front porch. We took a few videos that we wanted to post but Shaun lost his iPhone today so all we have is this picture. Cute as ever. Oh, and Happy Independence Day, whichever day you decided to celebrate it.